Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Politics

Who's next to defect over Iraq?

GOP senators up for re-election face voters' pressure to break with Bush.

By By ANNE FLAHERTYAssociated Pre
Published July 7, 2007

WASHINGTON - After the recent defection of prominent Republicans on the Iraq war, the big question in Washington is who might be next.

More than a dozen Republican senators who are running for re-election next year head the list of lawmakers to watch. But others, too, have expressed concerns that the GOP has grown increasingly vulnerable on the issue. As the clock ticks toward Election Day, voter pressure is building against lawmakers standing with President Bush on the war.

Potential wildcards include members up for re-election who have broken with the president on other issues such as immigration or who face growing antiwar sentiment in their home states. Those include Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Ted Stevens of Alaska, Pat Roberts of Kansas, Michael Enzi of Wyoming, James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Norm Coleman of Minnesota has expressed doubts about Bush's Iraq policies, but hasn't signed on to legislation calling for a change in strategy.

Support among GOP senators is considered crucial to Bush's Iraq policy. Democrats hold a narrow 51-49 majority and routinely fall shy of the 60 votes needed to cut off debate and advance most antiwar legislation.

But new cracks in Bush's support base have begun to show. In the past two weeks, three Republicans - Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio and Pete Domenici of New Mexico - announced they no longer support Bush's Iraq war strategy and called on Bush to start reducing the military's role there.

"I have carefully studied the Iraq situation and believe we cannot continue asking our troops to sacrifice indefinitely while the Iraqi government is not making measurable progress to move its country forward, " Domenici told reporters from New Mexico on Thursday. Instead, Domenici embraced a bipartisan bill by Colorado Democrat Ken Salazar that would put U.S. troops on track to leave by the end of March.

A spokesman for the White House, Tony Fratto, said that position amounts to the same approach sought by the Democrats, "which is, in fact, a precipitous withdrawal."

"We think that's absolutely the wrong way to go, " Fratto said Friday.

Sen. John Warner of Virginia, whose term is up in 2008 , is expected to propose legislation this month calling for a new strategy.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, among the first Republicans to call for a phased withdrawal of troops, said she wouldn't be surprised to see more of her colleagues follow suit because the Iraqi government has failed to live up to most of its political promises. She is not up for re-election next year.

"I think (Domenici) is reflecting that depth of frustration" among all members, said Snowe, R-Maine, in a phone interview Friday. "The big question is exactly what everyone's going to be able to support that represents a change in course."

Fast Facts:

Developments in Iraq

Six Americans killed: The U.S. military today announced the deaths of six service members in combat operations in Iraq: three soldiers in Baghdad on Friday, and two Marines in western Anbar province and a soldier in Baghdad on Thursday.

Militant hanged: An alleged al-Qaida militant, Oras Mohammed Abdul-Aziz, was hanged Tuesday for his role in one of the first major bombings in Iraq - a 2003 blast that killed Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and 84 other people, a Justice Ministry official said Friday.

Blast kills 26: A suicide car bomber struck outside a cafe in the tiny Kurdish village of Ahmad Maref near the Iranian border Friday, killing 26 people and wounding at least 33, police said.

Turkish agreement: Turkey's government and military have agreed on detailed plans for a possible cross-border operation against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, the foreign minister said Friday. Turkey has long complained of U.S. inaction against separatist rebels, who have escalated attacks in Turkey.

[Last modified July 7, 2007, 00:21:44]